This chapter considers the Thatcher governments’ economic policy in comparative perspective both in relation to their UK predecessors and successors and other large-economy states. It argues that the ...
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This chapter considers the Thatcher governments’ economic policy in comparative perspective both in relation to their UK predecessors and successors and other large-economy states. It argues that the Thatcher governments presided over significant change to the structure of the UK economy, some of it through deliberate policy intent and some as the unintended consequences of their policy actions. It also shows that, seen as a whole, the Thatcher governments left little legacy at the level of policy framework. They were unable to reduce the fiscal size of the state and New Labour pushed policy in a different direction. On the monetary side, the Thatcher governments grappled with the same problems of inflation and sterling and as policy became ever less coherent, set up the ERM disaster, the response to which by its successors has set the parameters of UK policy since.Less

The Thatcherite Economic Legacy

Helen Thompson

Published in print: 2014-02-27

This chapter considers the Thatcher governments’ economic policy in comparative perspective both in relation to their UK predecessors and successors and other large-economy states. It argues that the Thatcher governments presided over significant change to the structure of the UK economy, some of it through deliberate policy intent and some as the unintended consequences of their policy actions. It also shows that, seen as a whole, the Thatcher governments left little legacy at the level of policy framework. They were unable to reduce the fiscal size of the state and New Labour pushed policy in a different direction. On the monetary side, the Thatcher governments grappled with the same problems of inflation and sterling and as policy became ever less coherent, set up the ERM disaster, the response to which by its successors has set the parameters of UK policy since.